For the first time since 2007, the Bowman Cup will travel down the 490 Expressway to Rochester.

The Rochester Senior All-Stars defeated the Buffalo Senior All-Stars, 4-3, in the middle event of the Scotty Bowman Showcase at First Niagara Center on Tuesday.

Over the past eight years, the showcase, named after legendary hockey coach Scotty Bowman, has featured the best high school juniors and seniors from the Rochester and Buffalo areas. This year, a third game between players who play prep school or junior hockey, was added.

The senior game was a tight affair until Rochester forward Carlos Ross (Brockport) snapped a 3-3 tie with 4:04 to play in the second half.

Buffalo took an early 1-0 lead on a goal from Nick Pagliacci (Kenmore East) but Rochester tied the game with 9:15 to go in the first after Batavia’s Josh Marr backhanded a shot top shelf.

Rochester went ahead 2-1 thanks to a tally from Dalton Passmore of Rush Henrietta, who netted his first of two goals. Passmore would capitalize on a rebound opportunity midway through the second half to put Rochester up 3-1.

The Buffalo seniors rallied in the final minutes and were able to knot the game up. Defenseman Trevor Simonick walked in over the blue line, deked around a Rochester defender and put the puck in low glove side on Rochester goaltender Luke Loveys (Pittsford) with 5:56 to go.

Don Battista of Kenmore East tied the game 45 seconds later, rewarded for some hard work in front of the net.

That tie would only last for less than a minute when Ross capitalized on a feed from Marc Weyl (Pittsford) for the game winner.

For Rochester, Loveys, Mark McEvily (Fairport) and Dylan Niewiemski (Churchville-Chili) split time between the pipes. David Nowak (St. Francis), Marc Mallare (St. Joe’s) and West Seneca West’s Matt Peccia, who recorded an assist in the game, manned the net for Buffalo.

Buffalo opened the evening by winning the Tim Horton Memorial Cup, 7-2, in the showcase between high school juniors.

Goals from Brian Dudek of St. Mary’s and Cory Swift of West Seneca East and gave Buffalo a 2-0 lead in the first half.

Rochester cut the deficit to one 1:19 into the second half on a second rebound chance by Matt Corey (Spencerport), but it would be as close as they would get for the rest of the game. Buffalo opened up a three-goal lead minutes later on goals from Tyler McTigue of St. Francis and St. Joe’s Dimitrios Gogos, who scored off a no-look, behind the net pass from Kenmore East’s Andy Robinson.

Jake Mattiole of Gates-Chili would put Rochester within two goals with 10:48 to play, but Buffalo’s Rick Eberhart (Lockport) would make it a 5-2 game 1:43 later. After the puck was dumped into the corner, Tyler Chadkowski (West Seneca West) threw the puck out in front. Eberhart accepted the pass, lifted the puck straight up on his backhand and it dropped in over the goal line.

Shortly after, Buffalo had to kill off a five-on-three advantage for Rochester with less than four minutes to play.

In the final minute, Eberhart scored his second of the game and Bob Piotrowicz of Frontier scored as well to seal the victory for Buffalo.

Connor Naughton (Canisius), Michael Davern (Kenmore East) and Cooper Soto (Frontier) shared time in goal for Buffalo. Jon Brown (Churchville-Chili), Nick Coyle (Hilton) and Steve Speis (Webster Thomas) occupied Rochester’s crease.
The Buffalo Prep/Junior All-Stars controlled much of their game against Rochester, leading them to a 5-2 win in the last event of the night. They were awarded the first Rick Martin Memorial Cup after the game.

Bennett’s goal was one for the highlight reel. Trebes hit Bennett was a crisp pass from his own end and Bennett took it in alone on Rochester goaltender Will Massey (Maksymum Empire Jr.). Massey came out to poke check the puck away, but gave it right back to Bennett, who roofed a backhand shot into the empty net.

The trend of early second half goals continued in the late game. After a flurry of activity in front of the net on the right wing, the puck came across to Buffalo captain Andrew Poturalski, who tapped it in to give Buffalo a 5-0 lead 2:48 into the final period.

Buffalo goaltender Corey Sorrento (Buffalo Jr. Blades) was sharp in net to start the second half and held off the Rochester attack. He shared time with Jake Moore (Buffalo Jr. Sabres 18U) and Brandon Mueller (Nichols) in the winning effort.

David Powlowski (Buffalo Jr. Sabres 18U) and Nick Gullo (Buffalo Jr. Sabres 18U) scored for Rochester. Gullo’s goal showed Rochester had no quit in their game as it came with 16.2 seconds to play in the second half.

Players for the showcase were individually nominated by a group of area high school, midget and junior coaches from both cities based on their play this past season. The Buffalo Sabres completed the final selection of each team based on the ratings of the nominating committee.